Who Will Qualify To Play Magnus Carlsen?

Round one of this 11-round, 3 0 Swiss tournament starts Tuesday, May 31 at 10 a.m. Pacific time. Here's just a few of the many reasons you should be watching.

1. The winner plays Magnus Carlsen

The champion qualifies into the Blitz Battle Championship as our eighth seed, and gets to play World Champion Magnus Carlsen in round one. The chance for three hours mano a mano with Carlsen is probably a sufficient motivator for the competitors, but the match will also have $3,300 on the line with at least $1,000 guaranteed to the loser.

Pro: You get to play Magnus. Con: You have to play Magnus.

2. It's so top-heavy we have a U2700 prize

With 42 GMs, 26 IMs, and 2 FMs already registered -- and more entering all the time -- the event is chock full of top players. Some registrants who are ineligible for the U2700 prize include Wesley So, Ruslan Ponomariov, and Le Quang Liem.

So probably won't mind being ineligible for an Under prize No doubt, he has his sights exclusively on top prize!

3. Your favorite streamers will be playing

#teamscandi is sure to show up in force to support your friendly neighborhood streamer, IMJohn Bartholomew. Bartholomew will have plenty of opportunities to defend the honor of his beloved Scandinavian Defense at the highest level. Registrants are on notice; book up on the Scandi!

With a flat 3 0 time control, we can expect to see more flags than a United Nations meeting. The lack of increment will surely make for some seriously dangerous time scrambles.

I hope you've left enough time on your clock to shuffle your way to 50 moves in that opposite colored bishop position. Premove, premove, premove, %$*#@!

5. The Benjamins

While GMJoel Benjamin isn't signed up -- yet -- with $5,000 in total prizes available, there will be lots of Benjamins on the line. First place takes home $1,500, not bad for ~one hour of hectic 3 0 Blitz action. The prizes are laid out as follows.